This book is a great collection of humorous poetry from the viewpoints of a whole range of animals. Each poem is short, quick witted and embedded withThis book is a great collection of humorous poetry from the viewpoints of a whole range of animals. Each poem is short, quick witted and embedded with moral undertones. For example debates relating to the un/ethical treatment of animals and mundane careless actions like destroying a spiders web. I think this would be a really useful book, particularly for KS2 children when looking at different styles of poetry and potentially citizenship related issues. A great book to share that can also offer other learning opportunities beyond literacy....more

Handa’s Surprise is a lovely story about a little girl called Handa, who makes a basket of fruit as a surprise for her friend Akeyo. Unsure of Akeyo’sHanda’s Surprise is a lovely story about a little girl called Handa, who makes a basket of fruit as a surprise for her friend Akeyo. Unsure of Akeyo’s favourite fruit, Handa picks a variety of seven different fruit to go into her surprise basket. On her journey to Akeyo’s village, Handa is totally unaware that several animals have been stealing the fruit from the basket. Luckily, a goat crashes into a tree before Handa arrives at Akeyo’s village and fills her basket full of tangerines. Tangerines happen to be Akeyo’s favourite fruit, so this is a wonderful surprise for both Handa and Akeyo.This is a wonderful picture book that is lovely to read in any context. This book is most appropriate for EYFS or KS1 and can offer a fantastic means for creating talking points to get the children more involved during time. It also offers a wealth of opportunities for making cross curricular links such as counting, exploring characters emotions, naming different fruits and animals, geography and several other ways to address topic/subject areas. ...more

This beautifully illustrated book has several educational themes and a unique layout. As an already established classic, I would say this is a definitThis beautifully illustrated book has several educational themes and a unique layout. As an already established classic, I would say this is a definite must have particularly for the EYFS. The award winning children’s story book, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ is a short tale about, what is clearly quite obvious from the title, a very hungry caterpillar.

The book begins with a small egg that rests on a leaf in the moonlight and goes on to hatch during sunrise on a Sunday morning, producing a caterpillar that feels very hungry. Throughout the course of this book the hungry caterpillar gluttonously eats several different types of fruits and food across the duration of a week, all of which increase based upon the day of the week, leaving him feeling very unwell. However after eating a green leaf he feels much better. Following these events the very hungry caterpillar is no longer small or hungry; he is now big and fat. He then goes on to build himself a cocoon where he lives for two weeks and later hatches out of to become a beautiful butterfly.

This is a fantastic book that cleverly incorporates a variety of educational themes such as: learning the days of the week, counting, identifying differ types of food and the stages involved in the butterfly cycle.Although this book was first published a long time ago, I think there is also a very current and relevant moral issue that is raised and has become a high priority on schools agendas relating to healthy living. The examples in this book being, how the caterpillar looks and feels after eating too much and how eating in his case the leaf, healthy food helps to repair the body.

Just to add, I would not be doing this book any justice if I did not mention its unique staggered page layout, beautifully detailed vibrant colour illustrations and creative touch of caterpillar nibble holes through each page to show how much the caterpillar ate on each day. This is a truly brilliant book and also a favourite of mine and my daughter. ...more

A Wonderful, enjoyable and engaging read for children. Trish Cooke’s book ‘So Much’ is about the events of a day for a mother and baby, who have lotsA Wonderful, enjoyable and engaging read for children. Trish Cooke’s book ‘So Much’ is about the events of a day for a mother and baby, who have lots of relatives come around to visit their home leading up to a surprise birthday party for daddy. With an untraditional story layout, the language structures of this book play on the use of rhyming words, onomatopoeia, repetitive phrases and Caribbean dialect related expressions and sentence structures. This story is mainly described from the viewpoint of the baby which helps to emphasise its main theme of family love. This is shown throughout the story as each relative arrives at the baby’s house sharing different types of affection with the baby. This book is full of enjoyment, has an unpredictable ending and offers the opportunity for children to be actively involved in helping to tell the story and have fun whilst carrying out the actions. As my daughters all time favourite, I love this book because it can help to make the shared reading experience more exciting and enjoyable for both adults and children. However, the true beauty and power of this book can be lost if it is not read with the enthusiasm it deserves. I think this book would be most effective during group reading activities like assemblies or carpet time. ...more

Like all encyclopedia’s, this encyclopedia is full of fun, exciting and unusual facts on a wide range of topics. This encyclopedia is targeted at thosLike all encyclopedia’s, this encyclopedia is full of fun, exciting and unusual facts on a wide range of topics. This encyclopedia is targeted at those tricky questions children often ask that you often find yourself unable to answer. This book is useful for both children and teachers to brush up or gain basic subject knowledge on a particular topic. I think what makes this one stand out from the rest, is that most of the subjects covered in its content provide the opportunity for you to look at the areas you are researching in more depth by providing useful website links. Each website link shown on the page also provides details of the content you will find when logging onto the links provided. This is a great time saver and good way of guaranteeing that you or your students find exactly what you are looking for. ...more

The story ‘Elaine, You’re a Brat!’ is a story about friendship, family relationships and how one’s own behaviour and actions can affect others. ElaineThe story ‘Elaine, You’re a Brat!’ is a story about friendship, family relationships and how one’s own behaviour and actions can affect others. Elaine who behaves like a brat, goes to stay with her grandmother and gets up to all kinds of mischief. In the story her grandmother decides to teach her lesson she will never forget. I would recommend that this book would be a particularly useful way to get challenging classes or individuals to reflect on their behaviour and think about the wider consequences of their actions. This book is suitable for KS1 children and can easily be integrated into subject such as PSHE and Literacy (writing diary entries). This is a wonderful little book that I would definitely recommend to others. ...more

Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson is about ten year old identical twins called Ruby and Garnet. These twins do quite literally everything together, howeDouble Act by Jacqueline Wilson is about ten year old identical twins called Ruby and Garnet. These twins do quite literally everything together, however since the death of their mother things are constantly changing around them. In the story Dad meets a new woman and the girls find themselves having to adapt to the changes of moving house and making friends in a new a school. The girls find themselves coping with these changes differently and begin to question whether being a double act will really last forever. This book is a wonderful little read and may be useful to recommend to a child who may be dealing with similar changes or circumstances in their life....more

This is a wonderfully illustrated information flap book which uses very simple language to describe the different functions, processes, features involThis is a wonderfully illustrated information flap book which uses very simple language to describe the different functions, processes, features involved in different parts of the body. This would be a very useful book to use to introduce any topic which relates to understanding the biology of human body system. However the brief explanations and descriptions may not be so useful if you only intend to focus on one particular function/area of the body. I would say that this book is useful for any age and could be used as a resource for children carrying out independent research during lessons....more

I am currently reading this story in my year 2 class during guided reading. The children are absolutely loving it.It has provided a wealth of talkingI am currently reading this story in my year 2 class during guided reading. The children are absolutely loving it.It has provided a wealth of talking points and interesting questions to ask during guided reading. This has helped me to make really good assessments and gather very detailed comments/feedback. It's an absolute classic that promotes reading for pleasure (from what I have found anyway)....more

This book is a true classic and a wonderful book to read during story time. I used this book during whole class reading with my year 3 class and wentThis book is a true classic and a wonderful book to read during story time. I used this book during whole class reading with my year 3 class and went on to use it as a basis for teaching several literacy lessons. Lovely book that can be easily adapted to suit literacy lessons. ...more

The Stick Man is a wondeful little book and one of my daughters favourites. I read this to a class of reception children to introduce rhyming and lateThe Stick Man is a wondeful little book and one of my daughters favourites. I read this to a class of reception children to introduce rhyming and later did a lesson on the sequence of the story. Another fantastic Julia Donaldson book....more